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Someone was asking me about my set up for trolling from a canoe. Before my last trip, I made some modifications to the centre thwart to accommodate my fishing rod and spare paddle, and I'm very satisfied with it.
Here's a short 60 second video I made while in Algonquin in September.
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Interesting. Much lighter/compact than the Tite-Lok rod holder I use.
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Thanks. I like multi function set ups. When the gear ties are not holding a rod, they're holding other gear.
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Cool idea! Gotta love those gear ties!
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Thanks for sharing this - I've recently started trolling with gear ties like that but haven't gotten a hit yet while doing so, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to set the hook if I had, since I've been pretty much tying the rod down with the ties. Your style makes more sense and I'll definitely try it.
Depending on the species you're after, are there any lures/rigs you find work well for trolling while paddling at normal travel speed? Or is this just something you do while specifically fishing and not en route?
Personally my favourite thing about gear ties is holding the paddles on portages. Haven't tried them on a solo yet but on tandem trips I tie the paddles' necks to the yoke and butts to the front seat, then not only is the non-canoe carrier relieved of holding them but the canoe carrier gets far better handles than the gunwales.
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Dan that's my favourite use for gear ties as well . . . so quick and efficient on the paddles.
Great setup though, I caved and have setup some Scotty rod holder options between my two boats, and it makes a huge difference, not so much for fishing, but for paddling. A 7ft rod puts the line 5ft from the gunnel, and removes any hassle . . .
this is a very nice UL option though . . .
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Take a close look at those gear ties I'm using for the fishing rod. They're the ends of long ties that are taped flat to the thwart to hold the blades of the paddle while portaging. The handles of the paddles are gear tied to the seat behind me. I'll post another short video showing it more clearly, but it's visible in some of my other videos
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Craiger05 wrote:
Dan that's my favourite use for gear ties as well . . . so quick and efficient on the paddles.
Great setup though, I caved and have setup some Scotty rod holder options between my two boats, and it makes a huge difference, not so much for fishing, but for paddling. A 7ft rod puts the line 5ft from the gunnel, and removes any hassle . . .
this is a very nice UL option though . . .
Good point on rod length. Intuitively, an ultralight canoe set-up implies a short, ultralight fishing rod, but the extra length is important for paddle clearance. If I want to troll lures near the surface, I can stand the rod straight up above my head from the centre thwart, but for deeper lure presentation, the side setup works better.
DanPM, you'll notice in a lot of my videos that I troll orange Rapala X-Raps almost exclusively, for all species. I leave it in the water most of the time while paddling, but I generally don't catch anything until I pause or slow down, either purposely or to deal with an obstruction or shoreline approach. I've caught trophy calibre fish of almost every species using this setup. The X-Rap has neutral buoyancy, or actually floats with no terminal tackle, and therefore doesn't snag bottom when I stop or slow down like a spoon, jig or spinners does. When targeting deeper fish in summer, I will jig or slow troll deeper, but not while travelling.
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